


Win Some, Lose Some

by DashFlintceschi



Series: Illnesses/Disabilities Alphabet Challenge [14]
Category: You Me At Six
Genre: Dan and Max get together by text, Dan blames Josh, Dan gets stabbed, Dan has nerve damage, Dax? Man? I like Dax, M/M, Max is surprisingly rational
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-06-25
Packaged: 2018-02-06 04:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1844581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DashFlintceschi/pseuds/DashFlintceschi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While celebrating the completion of recording Cavalier Youth, Dan gets stabbed. He suffers nerve damage as a result.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Win Some, Lose Some

**Author's Note:**

> N is for Nerve Damage.

Although he knows it’s not really his fault, Dan never completely forgives Josh for what happens. In his mind, it’s partially Josh’s fault, since Dan wouldn’t have been standing outside that club if Josh hadn’t insisted they go out to celebrate the end of recording for their new album. If he hadn’t been standing outside that club, the drunk guy that asks Dan for a cigarette wouldn’t have been able to over react and slam a penknife between Dan’s shoulder blades when he tells him he doesn’t have any and turns to go back inside.

Thankfully, the knife misses his spine, but when he wakes up in the hospital the next morning, feeling sick and with a sharp pain in his back, the doctor tells him he has permanent nerve damage, which will give him pain in his back, and pain and uncontrollable trembling in his arms for the rest of his life. Once the doctor leaves, a nurse leads his band mates into his room. Their faces are pale and pinched with worry, and they look like they haven’t slept, but Dan can’t bring himself to notice or care as he glares at Josh.

“Get that bastard out of here! This is all his fault!” He growls, getting even angrier at the surprised, hurt look on Josh’s face.

“Mate, come on, none of us could have known this was going to happen,” Matt tries to reason with him, but Dan bares his teeth in a snarl.

“Get him away from me,” he demands through gritted teeth, and Josh sighs sadly and drops his head as he turns and leaves. Matt, Chris and Max sit in the chairs around his bed and keep trying to make him see sense, but he doesn’t want to hear it, so he ignores them, settles down and goes back to sleep, ignoring the sad sighs from his friends.

Since the knife didn’t go in very deep, Dan’s only in the hospital for five days, and as he’s leaving, his doctor clears him to fly back to the UK. Unfortunately, Matt and Max messed around with their tickets, so Dan’s stuck sitting next to Josh for the nine hour flight to Heathrow. He adamantly ignores Josh, until the seatbelt light goes off, and he undoes his belt, jumps to his feet, and pushes past Josh’s legs harshly. He storms along the aisle to where Max and Chris are sitting.

“I know for a fact that I wasn’t sitting next to him, whichever one of you fucked with it, swap back, _now_ ,”he snarls softly, and Max sighs.

“I’m not switching until you talk to him. I know you’re angry, but he’s your best friend,” he insists, and Dan scoffs angrily.

“He is nothing to me,” he spits, lurching forward as Josh pushes past, rushing along the aisle and locking himself in the toilet. Chris sighs and stands up.

“Right, take my seat. I’ll swap, once I’ve made sure he’s alright,” he announces, then heads towards the toilet Josh is hiding in.

Dan flumps down into the seat Chris has just vacated, and Max sighs.

“You’re going to regret this once you calm down,” he comments softly, and Dan shakes his head.

“I won’t. It’s his fault, whether he admits it or not, and I’m never going to forgive him. He’s ruined my life,” he insists, and Max pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“I’m not trying to alienate you here, because you’re my best friend, but it’s really not Josh’s fault. You’re in pain, you’re struggling to come to terms with it all, and you’re looking for someone to blame. We still don’t know who the guy was, so Josh is the easy option,” he tries, and Dan sighs.

“You’re probably right, but it doesn’t feel like that right now. Right now, it feels like his stupidity ruined my life, and I don’t want him in my life, at all. If it turns out that you’re right, I’ll do everything I can to make it up to him, but for now, I just want him away from me,” Max nods, understanding. He’s not happy about it, but he understands. A few minutes later, Josh and Chris walk past on their way back to their seats, and Dan can easily see how upset Josh is. He feels a pang of guilt somewhere inside, but he pushes it down and squashes it.

When they land at Heathrow, Dan makes his own way home, and that’s the last they see of him for the next month. When he arrives at their practice space, he’s calmed down considerably, and he’s fully prepared to apologise profusely and do his best to make it up to Josh. That’s completely changed by the time the rest of them get there, though. While he was waiting, he’d started warming up, since this will be the first time he’s played since they finished tracking the drums for the album. When the four of them walk in, it’s just in time to see Dan scream in frustration as he throws his drumsticks across the room and kicks his kit angrily.

When he sees them standing in the doorway, he gives Josh a glare that could kill.

“I was going to forgive you, but I can’t even play anymore! You’ve taken the one thing I was good at away from me!” He snarls, and Max sighs, picks up the drumsticks from where they landed, and goes over to Dan.

“Here, you can still do it, just keep trying,” he insists, and Dan huffs, holding up his trembling hands.

“How the fuck am I supposed to do it with these?!” He demands, and Max forces the sticks into Dan’s shaking hands.

“You’re over-thinking it again. Remember when we were recording Sinners, and you kept messing up on Reckless? It was because you were over-thinking it. Just clear your mind, forget about the shaking, and just _do it_ ,” he demands, and Dan huffs again, but does as he’s told.

It turns out Max is right. Dan takes a deep breath, stops thinking, and lets his hands run through the motions he’s committed to memory. As he gets to the end of the song, Loverboy, he smiles to himself as he realises he didn’t make a single mistake, and his hands are barely shaking at all now. He looks to where Josh is grinning at him proudly, and smiles sheepishly.

“I’m sorry,” he tells him softly, and Josh’s grin widens.

“You have nothing to apologise for. Blaming me made you feel better about what happened. I mean, yeah, it hurt, but I understand,” Josh assures him, and Dan sighs in relief.

When they finish practice, with Dan staying relaxed and only making minimal mistakes, which they all occasionally do anyway, Dan invites himself over to Josh’s, to catch up on everything he’s missed in the last month, and, though Josh insists he doesn’t have to, find a way to make it up to Josh for the way he treated him. As they’re sitting with a beer each, Josh sighs.

“Fuck it, he’s never going to grow a pair, so I’m just going to say it. Max fancies the hell out of you, and he’s too much of a wimp to say anything,” Dan gapes at him, and Josh laughs. “You honestly didn’t notice?” He asks, and Dan shakes his head.

“I guess I was too wrapped up in my own problems to notice anyone else,” he comments, and Josh laughs, doubling over and laughing so hard he can’t breathe as Dan pulls out his phone, and Josh realises what he’s doing. He’s firing off a text to Max.

 _‘Josh reckons you fancy me,’_ he waits anxiously for a reply, Josh laughing helplessly beside him the whole time. Finally, three minutes later, his phone chimes with a reply.

 _‘I’m going to fucking kill him,’_ is all it says, and Dan laughs softly as he types his reply.

_‘you might want to rethink that. I won’t be able to go out with you if you’re in jail,’_

_‘are you actually saying you want to go out with me right now?’_

_‘That’s exactly what I’m saying. So, we’re going out with each other now, yeah?’_

_‘Yeah, but when people ask about how we got together, we’re going to lie and say something infinitely cooler.’_

_‘Agreed.’_

By this point, Josh is laughing so hard, his face is going purple, and Dan’s genuinely worried for his wellbeing.

“That did not just fucking happen,” he chokes out, and Dan chuckles softly.

“It did. But when we tell people a completely different story about how we got together, you keep your mouth shut, or my little hedgehog boyfriend will kill you,” he informs him, and Josh laughs so hard, he almost passes out. Dan knows he’ll probably never stop blaming Josh just the tiniest bit, but Josh doesn’t mind, and at least Dan finally got his hands on Max thanks to the whole fiasco.


End file.
